Published on Dec 30, 2015Turkish troops made an incursion into northern Iraq in early December. Ankara says the troop deployment is meant for a training mission. The Turkish incursion has been condemned by Russia, the United Nations and its ally the U-S. The Turkish government has defied calls to fully leave the Iraqi soil. Turkish troops made an incursion into northern Iraq in early December. Ankara says the troop deployment is meant for a training mission. The Turkish incursion has been condemned by Russia, the United Nations and its ally the U-S. The Turkish government has defied calls to fully leave the Iraqi soil.

Out With The Old, In With The Jackass by Turd Ferguson, http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/Another holiday weekend is upon us so, as per tradition, we have another installment of a TFMR podcast with The Golden Jackass himself, Jim Willie. Three main topics are discussed over the course of this 100+ minute discussion. The first 40 minutes deals with The Middle East, particularly Syria and Turkey. The next 20 minutes are spent discussing the recent “rate hike” by the Federal Reserve and the final segment primarily focuses upon falling crude oil prices and the impact on derivatives, interest rates and geo-politics.

How to Crush Erdoğan’s Expansionismby JOSHUA TARTAKOVSKY, http://www.counterpunch.org/Erdoğan’s Turkey is angry. It feels repressed and hated unjustly. It is hungry for respect but insatiable in its demands. It brought down a Russian jet unwarrantedly and militiamen fired on its parachuting pilot, but Erdoğan’s Turkey believed it was protecting itself. Despite its supposed sensitivity to questions of sovereignty, it sent troops across the border to Iraq against the wishes of the Iraqi government, supposedly to train anti-ISIS fighters. No one believes this. It is engaged in a bloody crackdown against the Kurdish Workers Party guerrilla group (PKK) inside Turkey resulting in a bloodbath, which may very well be only the beginning. Erdoğan’s Turkey views itself as a victim of Russia, the “killer of Sunnis.” But it is Erdoğan’s Turkey which is aiding and trading with the Islamic State while presenting itself as a victim of false accusations. To view the invasion of Iraq in isolation is to miss the point. Erdoğan’s Turkey is hoping to regain the pre-1917 Ottoman lands across the border and/or to reunite with its brothers the Turkmen in Syria. It is only a question of time before Erdoğan’s Turkey invades Syrian territory illegally, just as it did in Iraq, under the full protection of NATO. It is expansionist by nature.–Many prefer to view Erdoğan’s actions as whimsical or as contrary to the wishes of the United States or NATO. According to this narrative, Erdoğan is a madman but he is acting on his own. This is a mistake. Let one who claims so answer candidly the following questions:–Did the United States or NATO denounce the toppling of the Russian Jet? -No. On the contrary. It was claimed Turkey has the right to “defend itself.”–Did the United States or NATO demand an immediate withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Iraq following the illegal invasion on December 4? Did it denounce it at once? –No. Only two weeks later did the US ask Turkey to withdraw its forces from Iraq. There was no condemnation.–Did the United States or NATO hold Erdoğan accountable for his trading with and support for ISIS? –No. In fact, NATO-Turkish cooperation and EU-Turkish collaboration has only intensified.–Did the United States condemn Erdoğan for his bloody campaign against the Kurds in Turkey? –No.–Erdoğan’s Turkey is very convenient for NATO. It serves as the tool by which to assert both Turkish and NATO’s strategic objectives. Both NATO and Turkey wish to bring down the government of Bashar al Assad. Both NATO and Turkey seek to confront Russia. Both the US and Turkey have been working to weaken the Iraqi state, even by adirect attack. Erdoğan’s Turkey is the spearhead of NATO’s campaign and strategic objectives. If Russia attacks Turkey or responds to a Turkish provocation, NATO will intervene. It is obligated to do so under NATO’s Article 5. Turkey is both the provocateur and the bait. If Turkish actions were whimsical and undesirable, would the US and NATO not condemn them at once rather than offer Erdoğan their backing?–Erdoğan has been enriching himself from ISIL’s oil and keeping the revenues in his pocket while leaving his people in poverty. He has served his own interests and the interests of NATO, not of the Turkish people. All under the banner of “Neo-Ottomanism.” As I wrote earlier, Erdoğan enjoys popular support by a impoverished public who sees him as a genuine representative. He has been intentionally stirring resentment and feelings of national humiliation and Russia should have therefore sought to drive a wedge between Erdoğan and the people.–read more.

Published on Dec 29, 2015Israel has once again defied international condemnation of its settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli watchdog Peace Now says Tel Aviv is planning to build more than 55,000 settler units east of Jerusalem al-Quds. This includes the expansion of a current settlement and the construction of two new ones. The Israeli watchdog says it has obtained the data from an Israeli regime source. The news has already sparked anger from Palestinians who believe the move lays the ground for the complete occupation of their lands. Israel’s settlement expansion policy has been met with fierce criticism from many countries and several international bodies. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

Revelation 2:9 – …. and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Click on image for article!

Click on image for article!

Revelation 2:9 – …. and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

“In 2001, Dr. Ariella Oppenheim, of Hebrew University, a biologist, published the first extensive study of DNA and the origin of the Jews. Her research found that virtually all the Jews came from Khazar blood. Not only that but Oppenheim discovered that the Palestinians—the very people whom the Jews had been persecuting and ejecting from Israel’s land since 1948—had more Israelite blood than did the Jews.In sum, the vast majority of the Jews were not Jews; some of the Palestinians were. Some of the Palestinians even had a DNA chromosome which established that they were “Cohens”—workers at the ancient Temple and synagogues of the Jews.” – Quote

Click on image for article!

Mr. Benjamin Freedman, a Jewish industrialist born in New York, wrote in the Economic Council Letter published there of October 15 1947: “These Eastern European Jews have neither a racial nor a historic connection with Palestine. Their ancestors were not inhabitants of the Promised Land. They are the direct descendants of the people of the Khazar Kingdom. The Khazars were a non-Semitic, Turko-Mongolian tribe.” Mr. Freedman was challenged, unwisely, by a Zionist objector; he invited his challenger to go with him to the Jewish room of the New York Public Library. There they could together examine the Jewish Encyclopedia volume I pp. 1-12, and the published works of Graetz, Dubnow, Friedlander, Raisin and many other noted Jewish historians, which, as well as other non-Jewish authorities, “establish the fact beyond all possible doubt”.’ ~ Somewhere South of Suez (1950) pp349-350.” –

The Wheels Just Fell Off: US Trucking Has Not Been This Bad Since The Financial Crisis by Tyler Durden, http://www.zerohedge.com Earlier this month, we profiled yet another casualty of slumping trade, falling commodity prices, and mediocre, double-adjusted economic “growth”: trucking. – More specifically, we highlighted the dramatic November decline in Class 5-8 orders. The numbers for Class 8 – those trucks with a gross weight over 33K pounds and which, you’re reminded, make up the backbone of U.S. trade infrastructure and logistics – were a veritable disaster. – “Class 8 orders of 16,600 were below our channel check based 22,000-25,000 expectation, dropped 59% yr/yr and 36% from October (vs. the ten-year average 7% decrease in November from October), and was the weakest order month on a seasonally adjusted basis since August 2010,” Wells Fargo exclaimed, before adding that “clearly, November Class 8 orders slowed to weak levels and were beneath expectations.” … In short: this is the worst things have been since the crisis.Importantly, note that the malaise is widespread.That is, you’re seeing the same picture in flatbed, refrigerated, and dry van, which would certainly seem to indicate that demand for everything from foodstuffs, to building materials, to merchandise is simply collapsing. Here’s a look at survey respondents’ appraisal of the current situation and their outlook for demand going forward: –read more.

In Latest NSA Spying Scandal, World Learns Obama Lied Again; Congress Furious it Was Spied On by Tyler Durden, http://www.zerohedge.comIn January 2014, during the scandalous aftermath of Edward Snowden’s NSA snooping revelations, one which revealed the US had been spying on its closest allies for years, Obama banned U.S. eavesdropping on leaders of close friends and allies and promised he would begin reining in the vast collection of Americans’ phone data in a series of limited reforms.…The president lied, and the privacy concerns of “people around the world” have clearly never once been taken into account in Obama’s policies and procedures.–Just three days prior, on January 14 2014, Vermont Senator and current Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders had written an email to then NSA Chief Keith Alexander asking if the NSA has or is currently spying “on members of Congress or other American elected officials.” The letter went on to define spying as including “gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails sent, or collecting any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business.”–The response: the National Security Agency’s director, responding to questions from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, says the government is not spying on Congress…. “Nothing NSA does can fairly be characterized as ‘spying on members of Congress or other American elected officials.” Alexander wrote in the letter, dated Friday and released Tuesday.–The former NSA head also lied.We know this because in the latest WSJ report on the NSA’s spying scandal from this evening, we find that even though Obama announced two years he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state, the spying continues and “behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”–The spying, or rather counterespionage, was in order to facilitate the US-Iran nuclear negotiations and deal which took place this summer over Netanyahu’s firm objection to scuttle any lifting of the Iran embargo (an embargo whichIran had skirted for years by importing billions of dollars worth of gold from Turkey via Dubai).–That in itself would not be quite so scandalous considering the frosty diplomatic relations between the two nations in recent years, if it didn’t also involve the direct and indirect spying by the NSA and the executive branch, on members of Congress.–read more.

Still think my comments about a Beast ‘666’ Network ridiculous? Click on image for article.

Is this Russian propaganda? No idea. We can conclude that the ‘disagreements’ between Russia and Turkey will get worse.
–

Turkish Mercenaries Arrive in Ukraine, Plot Subversions Against DPR, Russia by http://sputniknews.com/ , 23 Dec 2015The mercenaries are planning subversions in Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republic, according to the DPR intelligence.–DONETSK (Sputnik) — The intelligence service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) detected the presence of foreign mercenaries in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Artemovsk and Mariupol, a spokesperson of DPR’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.–“A group of about 100 Turkish mercenaries have arrived in Mariupol. Their main aim is to carry out subversive and inflammatory activities targeting both military and civilian sites in coastal areas in [both] the DPR and Russia,” the spokesperson told reporters.–The spokesperson added that some 200 mercenaries with identifying insignia of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but speaking in Polish, Slovak and Turkish languages, arrived in Artemovsk.–DPR’s Defense Ministry also noted the deployment of military vehicles near the contact line between forces from Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republic. The Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation in the country’s eastern regions since April 2014.–In February, Kiev and the representatives of Donbass independence supporters signed a deal on Ukrainian reconciliation in Minsk, including a ceasefire and the withdrawal of weapons from the line of contact. Article 10 of the agreement calls for the pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment and mercenaries from Ukraine.

On the Brink with Erdoğan: Could Turkey Push NATO to War with Russia in 2016? by MICHAEL GOLDFARB, http://www.politico.eu/LONDON — 2015 is drawing to an end. The unanswered questions of the year — especially the ones related to ISIL, Syria and the massive flow of refugees from the region into Europe — are being carried over onto 2016’s balance sheet.–So are the unasked questions. Chief among them is, “For how long will you tolerate the government of Turkey, a member of NATO and would-be member of the EU, taking steps that make defeating ISIL, or Daesh, more difficult?”–And, as a supplementary question to the leaders of Europe, “Why are you buying off the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to gain its cooperation in dealing with all the problems arising from the disintegration of Syria? Shouldn’t his cooperation be part and parcel of membership in a democratic ‘alliance’?”* * *Around 800,000 people entered the EU via Turkey this year and at the end of November, EU leaders agreed to give their Turkish counterpart €3 billion in aid to help stem the flow. In addition, the leaders sweetened the pot with a new fast-track visa system for Turks traveling to Europe and agreeing to postpone publishing a progress report on Turkey’s human rights record that is part of ongoing talks on EU accession.–When the outline of the deal was made public in October, a Human Rights Watch analyst, Emma Sinclair Webb, wrote that “it is scandalous and short-sighted that the EU is willing to ignore the huge crackdown under way in Turkey in its attempt to secure a deal to keep out refugees.”…But that is small beer compared to a month ago, when a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian plane. Since then tensions have grown between the two countries. The Turkish newspaper Zaman reports of renewed tensions between the two countries in the south Caucasus, saying that defense officials in Ankara claim “it is only a matter of time before the tension over Nagorno-Karabakh relapses into war.”–If there is another incident — and given how crowded the skies along the Syria-Turkey border are, it can’t be ruled out — and Russia decides to retaliate by shooting down a Turkish jet, what happens then? Turkey is a NATO member and would be within its rights to invoke the Article 5 “collective defense” response.–Would the Alliance really go to war against Russia then?That’s another question nobody asked at year’s end. I hope at least some of the Western Alliance’s leaders are thinking about the answer during the holidays.–read more.

What Secret Do Global Banks Know about Chinese Banks? by Wolf Richter, http://wolfstreet.com/They’re dumping their stakes.“Now is the right time for us to sell this investment,” announced Deutsche Bank’s newish co-CEO John Cryan on Monday after the long Christmas weekend when no one was supposed to pay attention.–It was how Cryan justified the deal to sell Deutsche’s entire 19.99% stake in Hua Xia Bank in China to Chinese insurer PICC Property and Casualty. He couched the deal in terms of executing Deutsche’s “strategic agenda”: boosting capital ratios to prop up the balance sheet.–Deutsche isn’t the first Western bank to bail out of banks in China where regulators limit foreign ownership stakes to a maximum of 20%, which brings some complications.–Goldman Sachs sold its stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2013. Bank of America Merrill Lynch bailed out of its stake in China Construction Bank in a series of deals. BBVA, Spain’s second largest bank, has been cutting its stake in China Citic Bank from about 15% in 2013 down to 4.7% now, and that remainder appears to be earmarked for sale as well. Other banks are also likely to pick up their marbles and go, such as Standard Chartered, with its stake in Agricultural Bank of China.–Like Deutsche, they couched those deals in terms of boosting capital ratios and balance sheets. And Deutsche could use some balance sheet repair. One of the largest and most leveraged global banks, it has been tangled up for years in a long list of scandals, court cases, and multi-billion-dollar settlements. Recently it suspended senior staff in Russia after suspecting they’d assisted in laundering money for sanctioned buddies of President Vladimir Putin. We were all shocked.–At the end of October, and in the tradition of new CEOs to frontload a big pile of dirty laundry, Cryan, who was appointed in June, announced massive losses (€6 billion for the quarter), including €1 billion in provisions against litigation expenses (now at €4.8 billion), the suspension of the dividend, and the elimination of 20,000 employees and contractors. Deutsche would pull out of ten countries mostly in Latin America and Europe. And it would dispose of its Deutsche Postbank, a retail bank with about 20,000 employees.–read more.

Erdogan’s Family Caught in New Scandal by Martin Berger, http://journal-neo.org/The clan relations principle has been a prime factor in business affairs for centuries in numerous Islamic and Middle Eastern countries. Unfortunately, in recent months we’ve often witnessed evidence that in Turkey the family of Tayyip Erdogan has been transformed in some sort of carnivorous octopus that has not simply entangled the Turkish economy and politics, but has also extended its tentacles far beyond the state.–It is hardly necessary to remind anyone of all the scandals in which the members of this family have been engaged. Here are just some examples of its connections with the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist groups:–* Erdogan’s daughter – Sümeyye Erdogan – has been running a covert military hospital, which is treating Islamic State militants. * With the consent of Erdogan, Turkish intelligence experts have been training Islamists at secret bases in the Konya Province inside the Turkish border.* The Islamic State is secretly cooperating with the third son of the President, Bilal Erdogan, to smuggle stolen oil through seaports that remain under his direct control. These criminal activities are covered by the BMZ Group Denizcilik ve İnşaat Sanayi Anonim Şirketi company that transports stolen Syrian and Iraqi oil to international markets.–After a series of reports on his involvement in illegal activities, Tayyip Erdogan ordered a series of arrests targeting independent journalists in a desperate bid to cover up his role in the illegal operations. For instance, Turkish special forces arrested the editor and correspondent of the Turkish newspaper “Respublika” Can Dündar and Erdem Gul who published an article on the weapons supplies to ISIL militants that Turkish authorities had been running. President Erdogan has demanded that those journalists must spend the rest of their lives in jail without any chance to be released whatsoever.–However, Western officials and international organizations couldn’t care less about all these facts. Moreover, Tayyip Erdoganhas has received much positive attention from EU officials, despite the role he’s been playing in the rapidly expanding migration crisis.–It’s not surprising that there’s an ever growing number of those opposing the policies of the Turkish President across the globe. For instance, graffiti stating that Erdogan is a terrorist has been pained on the walls of Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy. An unprepared reader might ask: why Bologna? – The answer is simple. Bilal Erdogan has been trying to get a degree in this institution.–However, his recent visit to Italy has been marked by yet another scandal. It’s been reported that Murat Hakan Uzan – a member of a family of Turkish businessmen that has been opposing Erdogan and his clan and therefore was forced to emigrate to France because of continuous persecution in Turkey, has demanded Italian law enforcement authorities to investigate the activities of Erdogan’s son – Bilal. According to Italian media, this family accused Bilal Erdogana of violating European and, in particular, Italian financial laws, since he has allegedly brought with him a considerable amount of cash in an attempt to launder it in Italy. The plaintiffs consider themselves to be the victim of the family of President Erdogan, who illegally took possession of their business in Turkey. The Italian authorities have been desperately trying to downplay this scandal.–At the direction of President Erdogan, the Turkish representatives in Italy are actively trying to gloss over this matter and prevent leaks of information to the media.–read more.